[Spotfree]

This is going to sound a bit mad but, you need to accept the current situation. It's not ideal and probably not what you thought life was going to be. Take a complete day or two off from work. Do something you enjoy and think about the bigger picture while doing it. Be grateful for the things you have. Your wife and son, your friends. This will make the challenges easier to handle because you are coming at it with a fresher outlook and not the tired, fed up one.
Window Cleaning is the job you do. It has loads of benefits over loads of other occupations and we are all guilty of thinking "this is crap" especially at this time of year. You earn good money. Nobody is pecking your head in. Your outside. etc etc. Your life is better than you currently realise.

im left wondering if he had time off over xmas...i had a full 13 days off so feel refreshed and ready to go....

I had 16 days and loved being off, first year in 10 I wasn't ready to go back to work.

[Spotfree]

I  have been there too, I lost my dad just before Xmas 2016 , so that Xmas was s h I t for me. I went back to work early January, but by the end of the month I could feel myself  feeling more and more down, but didn’t know why.  I had been getting sick of window cleaning  over the  past few years anyway, but after a few months of depression spells, I eventually put it down to delayed grief and being fed up with the job in winter. This is why I decided to make a plan to change things and started doing carpet cleaning instead, which I aim to move over to full time.  As others have said though, you need to make some time for yourself, throwing yourself in to work isn’t the solution,. It’s not going to stop you feeling bad, it’s just going to aggravate the problem. Perhaps think about doing what I did and diversify a little, or take a part time job for a couple of days a week. I do window cleaning, carpet and sofa cleaning, jet washing  and a bit of coach driving, but not a variety each week.

Sorry to hear about your dad mate!

I did think about gutter cleaning this year, but then I realised that when something just wont come out or something breaks off then I'll need to buy a ladder and rack, and go up the bloody thing, big no no for me. When I switched to WFP I swore I'd never do it again. I'm not the climbing type.

[Spotfree]

I was dubious about posting all my thoughts on a forum, but I'm glad I did now.

Its good to hear other people's perspectives, and after hearing what others are going through my problems seem smaller now.

 Slept better last night too.

I think I am doing too much work, I clean in excess of 60k of windows, its very hard to reduce that though so today I started with the price increases. I am hoping to lose work, seems mad I know, no one seems bothered yet though. Time will tell.

My dream is to turnover 75-80k and put someone on the round and pay them half, I'll take what's left to pay my bills etc. Then earn a living from my workshop, what a life that would be.

Thanks for everyone kind words of advice and sharing your issues with me too, it helped.

People judge this forum harshly but there's a decent little community here.

[Stoots]

I was dubious about posting all my thoughts on a forum, but I'm glad I did now.

Its good to hear other people's perspectives, and after hearing what others are going through my problems seem smaller now.

 Slept better last night too.

I think I am doing too much work, I clean in excess of 60k of windows, its very hard to reduce that though so today I started with the price increases. I am hoping to lose work, seems mad I know, no one seems bothered yet though. Time will tell.

My dream is to turnover 75-80k and put someone on the round and pay them half, I'll take what's left to pay my bills etc. Then earn a living from my workshop, what a life that would be.

Thanks for everyone kind words of advice and sharing your issues with me too, it helped.

People judge this forum harshly but there's a decent little community here.

That was my idea  a couple of years ago, have someone clean the entire round and me do something else.

Until I started emoying people and realising it's more stressful than just doing it yourself.

Not turning up, ringing in sick, complaints, skipping windows, bumping the van, breaking equipment, not hitting targets etc. The list went on.

Now I would just prefer to work 2 man so you can keep an eye in them.

[RPCCS]

Very true, once you take on an employee, you take on more hassle. Employer’s liability insurance, holiday pay, whether they will do as good a job, be trustworthy etc.. As a sole trader, you are responsible for yourself and no one else.

[Spotfree]

Yeah there is all that, I did try last year and got rid just before the end of the 3-month trial. Missed 1 window too many. Nice thought though ain't it.

[Oliver James]

The price rises will help.

With the work, have you considered moving customers from month / six weekly to 12 weekly, and charging 50% more for 12 weekly work?

If you do this, you will get a much higher profit margin, but without doing that much more work - although obviously, it is a bit more work cleaning houses on 12 weekly as compared to 6 weekly.

The other thing that may make work less of a hassle is moving customers to DD if you wish and getting rid of any 'hassle jobs' and bad payers.

60k is a brutal schedule for anyone to do AND do all the things that runnning a small business requires you to do at the same time. To hit that you will have to consistently be doing around £300, day in day out, Monday to Friday with just a month off a year for bank holidays / illness/holiday.

And it will grind you down eventually unless you have someone in the background doing behind the scenes stuff for you.

You have a dream of getting an employee and earn a living from your workshop. Visualise that goal and do something every day to move towards it.

It is possible to find decent employees, it just takes time and you may have to go through 4/5 before you find your man/woman!. If you commit to it, it WILL happen. Ask yourself: How much do you want to earn a living from your workshop?

Other stuff that may help: Intermittent fasting where you fast for 16 hours a day for a few days a week or more, avoiding processed food/sugar/caffeine/booze most of the time, and listening to Greg Plit motivational videos on youtube!

[Spotfree]

The price rises will help.

With the work, have you considered moving customers from month / six weekly to 12 weekly, and charging 50% more for 12 weekly work?

If you do this, you will get a much higher profit margin, but without doing that much more work - although obviously, it is a bit more work cleaning houses on 12 weekly as compared to 6 weekly.

The other thing that may make work less of a hassle is moving customers to DD if you wish and getting rid of any 'hassle jobs' and bad payers.

60k is a brutal schedule for anyone to do AND do all the things that runnning a small business requires you to do at the same time. To hit that you will have to consistently be doing around £300, day in day out, Monday to Friday with just a month off a year for bank holidays / illness/holiday.

And it will grind you down eventually unless you have someone in the background doing behind the scenes stuff for you.

You have a dream of getting an employee and earn a living from your workshop. Visualise that goal and do something every day to move towards it.

It is possible to find decent employees, it just takes time and you may have to go through 4/5 before you find your man/woman!. If you commit to it, it WILL happen. Ask yourself: How much do you want to earn a living from your workshop?

Other stuff that may help: Intermittent fasting where you fast for 16 hours a day for a few days a week or more, avoiding processed food/sugar/caffeine/booze most of the time, and listening to Greg Plit motivational videos on youtube!

Thanks Olly Mate,

Your pretty much spot on with a lot of that, except I try to get it done in 4 days so its more £ per day.

I do have around 50% on GoCardless and most of the rest is cash, I am planning on dropping 1 or 2, good payers etc but hard work.

I do look after myself most of the time and go a bit further than most with healthy calorie counted food full of fruit n veg, I generally don't eat until between 12-2 each day which gives me around 16 hours fast.

My hands are full of cuts writing this as I've been making my own tools in the shed from wood and steel, it's going to happen for me, I just don't know when or how, but it is.

When I first started window cleaning it was just to make a few quid to tide me over, when I realised that it could actually make me a decent living I became obsessed with it and grew a great round that pays well by being the best window cleaner I could be. It was all born from obsession, as all great things are!

The obsession with "making stuff" has already started and is strong as sh*t. The seed has been sown and its only a matter of time now.

[Mist A Bit]

If you can afford to do less hours spend more time with your family.  I sold my window cleaning business 4 years ago and now I’m in a career which allows me lots of family time every day , long holidays and more money .  I didn’t mind the windows but I had back problems and an opportunity to change.  Time is more valuable than money. You can always get more money but you can’t get more time

[Spotfree]

If you can afford to do less hours spend more time with your family.  I sold my window cleaning business 4 years ago and now I’m in a career which allows me lots of family time every day , long holidays and more money .  I didn’t mind the windows but I had back problems and an opportunity to change.  Time is more valuable than money. You can always get more money but you can’t get more time

Thanks mate, I do look for other ways to earn, What do you do now if you dont mind me asking?

[NWH]

Think of all the people who would love to be in the position of being there own boss,they’d give there right arm but they’ve been in the job they are in for so long it’s too late.
I speak to many postman and they are so far into there job for so long they can’t get out.

[Spotfree]

Think of all the people who would love to be in the position of being there own boss,they’d give there right arm but they’ve been in the job they are in for so long it’s too late.
I speak to many postman and they are so far into there job for so long they can’t get out.

I believe postmen get a good pension and sick pay, I know our postie has to work a saturday for 4 weeks then gets a full week off. Not too bad that.
I know what your saying though, it's a fair good position to be in. Been sticking my prices up, the last 5 bungalows today went up by £3 each. I've had a couple of cancelations which is what I'm aiming for, keep getting walk-ups though

[NWH]

They may get a pension but they don’t  earn good money unless they do loads of overtime,the ones I speak to are so many years in that it would drastically reduce there pension but they are sick of it. They are still in there early 40s with enough time to do something else but they won’t risk the pension over trying something new,as 1 of them said it’s almost like they know once you get past 12-14 years you are going no where.

[dazmond]

the average pay of a postman here in the north west is £25k for a 40 hour week including holiday pay...so take home pay will be just over £20k a year....how can that be better than working 25-30 hrs a week window cleaning?even after all expenses to do with my business,tax and insurance im left with at least £30k-£32 a year profit a year (plus the flexibility to work when i want)........

[NWH]

They sell the job or they used to on the pension and hours they used to start at 4-5 be finished by 11-12 not anymore,I feel sorry for the ones that remember the old days.
Most of them used to have other jobs window cleaning-gardening etc,crap money today.